Learn more about Billie Jo online at http://www.BillieJoKonze.com
Transcription
Paul Cram: I’m Paul Cram. Joined today by Billy Jo Kones.
Billie Jo Konze: Starting off in Minneapolis we were in this weird little pocket where things were still sort of like it was still the past and so most of my work was done in studio. I booked something and I would go to a professional studio, and that’s just how it was. I would say like yep 80 to 90 percent of my work was done at a professional studio. Even the smaller stuff.
Paul: Billy Jo has an extensive resume doing voice-over, theater, on camera work– basically I should just sum it all up and say that she is an actor. I’m really happy to be able to chat with her today. We talk a little bit about some of the differences between the Twin Cities and Atlanta Georgia as far as the acting scene goes, as well as some of our experiences that we’ve experienced together in this journey as actors. Here we go.
Billie Jo: You know that I was very active in the scene in Minneapolis, both in theater and film and commercials for a very long time. When I left Minneapolis I had five agents there. Then I moved down here, my boyfriend lives here, and I was mostly focused on on-camera and voice over at the point that I decided to move. And you know it was like, well my boyfriend was here, and it was either he moves up to Minneapolis or I move down here. And there’s a lot more work here, so I decided to go to Georgia. And then I got here and I jumped right in. And I audited some classes and I started looking for agents, and I got new headshots. And I did all the things, you know that you’re supposed to do and then everything shut down.
Paul: Which it did here as well you know.
Billie Jo: Yeah. Things are back up and happening, but you know I’m still mostly focused on voice over and very happily doing that. And so I feel like, I liken this too, you know if you have a bunch of plates spinning, if you already have like eight plates in the air. It’s a lot easier to get that next plate up and spinning. Right?
Paul: Yes.
Billie Jo: At the point that I moved I feel like I already had those eight plates spinning like I had I had been taking acting classes on an ongoing basis I had like I said I’ve had my brand new headshots I’ve you know had been doing all these things I had relationships in Minneapolis and then when I moved it’s like I had it’s like a bunch of those plates crashed and especially with the pandemic it’s like I had now if I wanted to start get back into the on-camera stuff I feel like I would just have to get one plate up and spinning and then get one more and it a lot more effort is what I’m saying.
Paul: Yeah.
Billie Jo: than it would have been before.
Paul: Well and there’s something even here in the Twin Cities with that. I mean all of the work, I keep saying the Twin Cities, which is limiting. I mean Georgia, the Twin Cities. Across the board on a National-level, everything and everywhere the plates either came crashing down or people just set them down. One of the two.
Billie Jo: Yeah
Paul: Yeah. And I am noticing things starting to kind of spin again um so it sounds like the Twin Cities and Georgia have a very similar you know thing having had happened with the pandemic um specifically with voiceover is there anything like that I guess I’m curious because like I do voiceover I haven’t done a ton ton lately um but but if you had to compare and contrast do you notice a difference between Georgia and Twin Cities for you?
Billie Jo: For voice over specifically? No. I think the changes that have happened in voiceover really have to do with the pandemic itself. When I was in Minneapolis, so I started doing voice over about five and a half years ago, and when I was starting off in Minneapolis we were in this weird little pocket where things were still like it was the past. So most of my work was done in studio. I booked something and I would go to a professional studio and that’s just how it was. I would say like
Paul: Yep
Billie Jo: t90 percent of my work was done in a professional studio even the smaller stuff someone would book a studio for um even the independent type work and then the pandemic happened and it would it had already started moving towards the home studio um before that but the pandemic really made it all of a sudden a necessity in a way that it wasn’t before and so you know I think since I’ve been here I’ve done one job in a studio and a professional video and then and then there was one other job that I actually rented a studio myself just because um there was some construction going on at the time and I didn’t want to deal with the stress of it but um you know just just in case it was happening that day.
Paul: yeah yeah.
Billie Jo: so other than that yeah it’s like most of my work here has been from home so.
Paul: and that’s where you are right now right? It looks like a lovely little space a studio space.
Billie Jo: It is home studio. An extremely nice home studio. I did not have this when I was in Minnesota. I worked out of my closet, so I love it.
Paul: that’s interesting the the um sort of that switch not switch I don’t know I would say that entire industry switch with the pandemic of things shifting and people doing more work from home um there’s something even here in town that um yeah do you think that I guess what’s your prediction for yourself there in Georgia? Like do you think that you will be doing way more stuff just from home now because that’s just the new normal? Or would you think you’re going to go back to more studio stuff?
Billie Jo: I think from home is the new normal for sure um unless you book big big jobs even people who are booking national promos are mostly doing it from their home studios so you know just because it’s such fast turnaround for for certain genres and so yeah home studio for sure.
Paul: I do want to get this one question out of the way because I always just try to ask it because I love it. But because people generally like yourself tend to give a really great answer; if someone wanted to follow in your footsteps what advice would you give them if they wanted to do, I would say specific to you in Georgia, if somebody wanted to kind of do that sort of a thing. Having lived there now for a while what would you tell them?
Billie Jo: you mean specifically voice over or?
Paul: or if there’s something that sticks out to your head just about moving from the Twin Cities to that market. Maybe another way to say the question would be if you could talk to yourself at 2019 or 2018 what would you have said what would you say knowing what you know now?
Billie Jo: I mean I don’t think I would tell myself anything different than what I already was doing. Because this is the advice I would give literally anyone moving anywhere is you know don’t don’t wait to get started. Just jump right in and do it. Because when I moved here I was literally driving into town with my cat in the back and my carpet and I voice called Atlanta voiceover studio to sign up for one of their classes that was starting that night, but I was like okay well I can’t come tonight because I’m literally just driving into town getting to see my boyfriend meeting my roommates getting my cat set-up, so I can’t start tonight. But could I start this class next week? Would that be okay?
Paul: I love it.
Billie Jo: they they ended up letting me start the next week but like you know I was like I’m not postponing this until, because it was October and then I don’t think they offered that class again until January. And so I was like No. I’m not gonna wait till January. I’m getting in there I’m gonna meet some people getting started and so yeah I started the class um and Heidi at Atlanta voiceover studio told me about vox-on-the-rocks which is a voice-over happy hour that happens once a month.
Paul: Nice.
Billie Jo: it did I don’t know if I don’t think it’s still happening right now because of the pandemic. But I went to that three days after I moved here and my roommate and I went and hung out met a ton of people and then from that I met some people who actually there were a couple people there I knew from Atlanta. From VO atlanta conference so I got to like see some of them in person again and meet some other people I met an acting teacher who has a class in the suburbs and I went to his acting class to audit it. I jumped into two other acting classes and I honestly wish that I had jumped into those a little bit sooner because the big thing is here versus the Twin Cities is the twin cities you can go apply to agencies and if you have experience and if you have talent you know you’re gonna find an agent. It’s not that hard. You don’t need a referral. It helps, but you don’t need one. Here, everything is by referral. So the biggest thing is here who you know and you know who will back you basically. And I didn’t get that far in that because I had to get a job, I had some savings but it wasn’t enough to survive on for like months and months and so I got a serving job like I’d always had and that sort of took over my life for the first I mean for the first month, I was not working by the time I found a job I ended up taking over my life through the holidays you know.
Paul: yeah yeah
Billie Jo: and so then I sort of felt like I had to put some of the other stuff on the back burner or like take my time with it and I wish that I had really jumped in a little faster and you know hindsight’s 20/20. Like yes it is early 2020. um like if I had known what 2020 was gonna be you know but because of that I didn’t really get to know people who would get me into the agencies and so I still don’t have an agent agent down here you know after how many years of having agents in the Twin Cities you know I came in here with the idea that like okay i’ll just apply to agencies and of course they’re gonna take me because I have all this experience and all this.
Paul: right?
Billie Jo: And that’s not the case.
Paul: Which I think is a very good point to bring up because I think like what you’re talking about sounds wildly different from Minnesota. Because I agree with you, in Minnesota if you have a resume, does it matter if you know billy bob? Not really. You know what I mean?
Billie Jo: Yeah
Paul: That’s interesting. I also have to say I feel like you’re, this is outside looking in, but it sounds like you’re hard on yourself in a way because I mean good grief Billy Jo! I cannot believe that you were on the phone signing up for a class the day you moved into town.
Billie Jo: I was so excited! I was so excited !I was just like I don’t feel like I understand what you’re saying but like I feel like some people go wow you just like chill out, but I was excited. I was so excited to just get started and like you know, why waste time? I just I don’t want to sit at home. I’m moving h ere and I want to get out and meet people and I want to you know get it started because it takes so long to become established in a community and luckily thanks to Atlanta voiceover studio I’ve actually met people during the pandemic over zoom who I’ve become friends with and then there’s a there’s a studio in California called the VO Dojo and I’ve met people through that.
Paul: Oh I love it. Small small world. Do you know Catherine Campion through the VO Dojo?
Billie Jo: Yeah, well I knew her before that.
Paul: you knew her before that? Yes! Shout out to Catherine Campion, great voice over artist as well, she used to be in l.a now she’s in the Twin Cities and yeah so small world, right Billy jo?
Billie Jo: yeah I met her so we have a voiceover meetup group in Minneapolis that I was a part of and she came to it right after she moved back from California and then Cat, we still ran it during the pandemic we used to meet in person but since the pandemic we’ve been meeting virtually and she still comes and um and then Cat and I are in like a voice over marketing group together that I put together so yeah.
Paul: I love it. yeah that’s awesome that is um that’s always fun I love it the community’s small little pockets that are actually not so small because they go everywhere. So I kind of want to transition into a little bit of a different topic but what was your take, this is like totally going back into the like some of the projects that you that movie that you and I worked on I was thinking about this before coming on with you and I was like huh looking back on that I feel like I have critiques for the director.
Billie Jo: Yeah…
Paul: From the perspective of I really enjoyed the whole process I thought it was super fun but I remember thinking um I remember looking back on it I was like I think that he I think that there was some things that were going on where, because you and I played brother and sister, and I remember after we were done filming I remember him mentioning like ‘oh I was trying to put you and Billy in situations where you’d have to rely on each other’ and I was like that’s an interesting thing, like but we’re actors we’re actors. We can do that. We don’t.
Billie Jo: Are you talking about when they didn’t give us directions?
Paul: yes
[both laugh]
Billie Jo: [sarcastic} hey we’re going to Hinckley but we’re not going to tell you where!
Paul: [sarcastic] you guys are going to ride together
Yeah. I think it’s an interesting experiment, but I think there’s a level of maybe misunderstanding what it is that actors do. Meaning for me, like if I’m part of an experiment… you can just skip that part. You can just let me know like do you want me and it Billy Jo to get on closer together just tell me you want us to get and it’s like cool i’ll get to know billy joel like I don’t need I guess I i guess I felt, in retrospect, I was like ‘I don’t need the experiment.’ We’re actors, we know what we’re doing, trust us.
Billie Jo: yeah I guess I was unaware, until now, until this exact moment, I was today years old when I discovered that our director was toying with us. Okay I didn’t know about that but I have very very vivid memories of driving up to Hinckley and then going ‘well wait, we don’t actually know how to get to the cabin’ and I don’t remember how did we even figure that out?
Paul: now that now that I think about that, I don’t remember.
Billie Jo: We stopped at the diner where the cinnamon rolls are.
Paul: yes
Billie Jo: and there was a carnival going on with a car show
Paul: there was elvis
Billie Jo: and I have a picture of you and two elvises and miss minnesota
Paul: yep
Billie Jo: I don’t think we just waited until someone actually texted us.
Paul: yeah
Billie Jo: no I mean I had I had so much fun filming that like it was it really felt like a very like group thing it felt like such a small um I don’t know immersive sort of experience
Paul: and now you know even more that it was a very immersive, even more than we knew. yeah
Billie Jo: but I just I also vividly remember the night that we have we had been shooting until very late and then you and like you and me and a couple other people were sleeping up in the loft and a couple of the crew were all sleeping downstairs and I just remember I feel the that day they had decided to cut a scene or two but then all of a sudden they were talking through the script and what was going to happen well if this scene doesn’t happen then this scene doesn’t make sense and if that scene doesn’t happen then this scene doesn’t make sense and the whole thing just unraveled and it was very I just remember being very scared at that moment going do you have a movie anymore because um yeah I feel like that happens to a lot of horror movies in fact like where something will get removed but then the whole story falls apart or there’s some logical step that gets missed.
Paul: I would have to agree with you as one who has um done a fair amount of horror movies have you done any since then I haven’t I know I’ve done a few horror movies since we did uh for anybody listening the name of the movie that we’re talking about is Dawning um and have you done a lot of horror after that i’m just curious
Billie Jo: I don’t remember to be honest
Paul: no worries
Billie Jo: so much I mean at that point I had done I had done one called oh I don’t remember what that one was called I had done one that was about Sasquatch where I got killed by Sasquatch and then I did Dawning I think right after that but oh you know what I have done um horror is a little not quite the right term for these but um I’ve worked with Christopher Mim twice and I you know he does 1950s b style movies
Paul: I was gonna say those are those are horror it’s a horror sci-fi right like kind of a sci-fi spin on it
Billie Jo: they’re like monster monster movies yeah so yeah yeah it’s not quite horror but I mean like there was I was in the one called giant spider and then I was in queen of snakes and so you know I always die like
Paul: you and me both I haven’t been in anything by Christopher Mim but yes you and I we both die um did we die in Dawning? I can’t even remember that did we die did we die I don’t remember
Billie Jo: I don’t I don’t remember either the body at one point
Paul: I remember that it all blurs together I do remember yeah I do remember some of some of I remember that night that you’re talking about too where there was some script changes that were occurring um yeah and I feel like I feel like we kept it all I don’t know yeah it all blurs together it’s interesting um so I have I have another question for you because I was glancing at your sp your website specifically uh and I have a little story but I want to ask you the question first have you had any cool coincidences happen to you lately?
Billie Jo: Lately?
Paul: and I’m putting you on the spot because I know that yeah you didn’t know I was gonna ask you that
Billie Jo: no no I mean that does seriously like one of my favorite questions to ask people and I don’t know that I’ve had any happen lately and partly I think coincidence not always but a lot of times requires you having permutations of encounters so like you need to be out in the world in motion yep yep and and I’m mostly in my apartment not in motion so the only types of coins that I could have would be you know um virtual I guess and I i can’t think of any right now um not a coincidence but funny funny little like that’s interesting is uh I moved down here I started my class at Atlanta voiceover studio and then Heidi who she and her husband run it sent me a thing saying hey these guys are doing a podcast and it’s a fiction radio drama podcast and it’s all anthology and it’s set in northern Georgia in this tiny imaginary town and so I auditioned um got in we started recording then it got put on hold for the pandemic and it’s still kind of on hold unfortunately but it’s great and the guys are super nice and sometime in the past year they put me in touch with this other guy who just so happens to be in International Falls, Minnesota and so now I’ve worked with them about three times and so his name is Jeff Adams. He runs Icebox Radio and he’s been doing podcasts for 13 years.
Paul: ooh ooh okay
Billie Jo: and I’m trying to facilitate this crossover because Garfield’s Crossing the Georgia one is like all these writers writing anthology stories and then what I want to do what I want to facilitate is some sort of crossover where the mimiverse for Christopher Mims like stuff where one of his films gets shown at the movie theater in Garfield’s Crossing and maybe the mimiverse crosses with the um Icebox Radio world interesting yeah you’re crashing two worlds together three I mean I’m just three of these worlds because I really admire people like Jeff and like Christopher Mim who you know they’re they’re creating and Christopher Mim has made a feature film a year for about the past 15 years and he and his wife have eight kids between them and he has a full-time job and he travels around and goes to all these like conferences and things or these um shows for comic book and you know whatever monster movie stuff and I’m like how do you have time to write all of these things and create all of these things but it’s amazing to me that you know with with self-funding what he’s doing what Jeff’s doing he’s you know Jeff’s been producing his podcast for 13 years and he produces multiple podcasts under his umbrella and so that to me is just like something to be celebrated the fact that people are creating things without having funding for it
Paul: right
Billie Jo: and do out of the absolute love of creating
Paul: and there’s there’s something to that consistency that is so impressive like what like you know I there’s so many directors that I’ve worked with where it’s like they you know they build up to and they work up to doing one movie and it’s like that’s an accomplishment to do that over and over and over and over and over is so impressive.
Billie Jo: yeah have you ever heard so there’s that um there was some study that they did where they had students do artworks and they told one group you work on producing the best piece of art you can you’re just going to produce one piece of art this semester but we want you to produce the best quality work you can and then the other group they said we want you to produce as much art as you can in the semester and then they took all of those and they had people judge them and the people who got the best works of art were not the people who worked on getting the best works of art the people who worked on getting the most because they were practicing and they were learning. that’s what I think about with this prolific thing is you know you learn by doing.
Paul: it’s it it brings to mind a conversation that I had previously with um an Atlanta casting director Cathy Reinking actually, uh yeah and she mentioned um sort of just that thing of creating and are you doing are you ki i’m i’m paraphrasing but it’s that thing where it’s like are you doing this because you love it? are you wanting to create and do your stuff like then do it. Then start doing it create your own content uh so what you’re saying just reminds me of that where it’s like but you learn by doing and and I’m a big fan of it’s like you learn by failing too where it’s like not everything is going to be perfect and oh my gosh Billie Jo the times that I’ve I look back on some of the sets that I’ve worked on and stuff and I’m like I was so bad like it was so awful and cringy but I learned I was like oh that didn’t work this work I don’t know some of that on the job training is invaluable
Billie Jo: yeah
Paul: yeah. do you like I are you making headways and is that going to happen what you’re talking about with the Christopher Mim and with some of that podcast stuff it sounds like an interesting idea so we can stay tuned or?
Billie Jo: I like putting little bugs in people’s ears yeah um actually so Jeff Adams from icebox radio he did a fundraiser about a month ago I think around halloween and as part of his fundraiser he asked because he didn’t know Chris and Christopher and um you know the guys down here definitely didn’t know Christopher but I had sort of mentioned it and he knew about the minimum verse and he ended up asking Christopher if he could one of his movies as part of his fundraiser so Christopher was like he must have said yes because he did it so that is I just really like connecting people who I think are like-minded and so you know if i’m like oh this person will be into this I want to connect them to that person like that’s one of my favorite things to do
Paul: I have a completely a parallel thought or question to that what is your have you ever done the myers-brigg? You know that high school type test that people do. Have you done that? Can I ask you what your results are?
Billie Jo: uh yes um I am an a enfpa
Paul: what is the a on the end?
Billie Jo: sue I would have to look it up I can’t remember
Paul: no worries I mean
Billie Jo: there’s two different ones there’s a and something else but there’s a and then there’s
Paul: there’s j. I’m a j. I’m the last letter is a j. But i’ve never heard of the a on the end. I am not shocked by the way Billie Jo that you are an e like the extrovert thing is so shining through. For someone to sign up for a like social class the day they move into a city like you are such an extrovert.
Billie Jo: the second before they like I was literally I just got off the highway and that was when I was like siri call this enfpa is the campaigner oh the campaigner
Paul: well good grief what we have just been you’re like I’m gonna get
Billie Jo: yeah ideas and you know trying to make things happen
Paul: oh that that e I think is really really valuable for what some of the things that you’re doing. I am not. I ride that line between an e and an i. and I sometimes I’m like oh my gosh people get away from me leave me alone uh it sounds like you never necessarily go that direction.
Billie Jo: no no no no and gimmick was like oh when we first went to lockdown I had two roommates um and so Max and Shannon and Max has been here the whole pandemic but Shannon pretty much up and left within a month and left us to go to her family in Florida for about six months so she was just gone and so I only saw my roommate and my boyfriend for a very long time and in the very first days when everything was shut down I got I started two accountability groups to help friends who were like feeling sort of adrift so I did accountability coaching twice a week and then I joined Atlanta voiceover studio had these weekly workouts with pro casting directors, directors, you know creative directors and things like that so I was doing those every week and then there were just a bunch of other things like in the past year I have like I think I have two accountability groups plus I have um a couple other groups oh the the group from Minnesota that I meet with so I have about four or five voiceover groups that I meet with regularly either weekly or monthly
Paul: that’s awesome i’ll have to i’ll have to chat with you after we after we are done here too I i’d be curious to poke my head in one of that voiceover group be like what is that about so if that’s possible. I do usually um like on the tail end of these I don’t know what I guess I’d call these like a chat interview type style thing I usually ask like three really fun questions um and I’m going to do that with you but before I do that I also was going to give you a book recommendation
Billie Jo: okay
Paul: I have not read this book yet so if it’s awful um you can just you can laugh but uh I did see that you like mystery novels um Killer Blonde and I have not read this but it’s set in Minnesota oh nice yeah so if you like mystery novels which I think you do that might be something to check out
Billie Jo: thank you I love that I do like mystery novels certain types
Paul: I was going to say this one probably leans more towards like a Grisham-esque sort of murdery kind of a thing I haven’t read a lot of those
Billie Jo: there’s there’s a couple authors Riley Sagar and then um uh yeah the there’s an Icelandic writer who’s very very popular um but I can’t remember his name right now that’s okay but there’s also a mystery thriller novel writer jessica laurie who’s a Minneapolis person as well so I think
Paul: oh jessica laurie jessica laurie jessica laurie I’m looking at my bookshelf I’m like is that one of hers it’s not but yes I have heard that name yeah
Billie Jo: i’ll have to look that up thank you
Paul: you’re welcome you’re welcome I love books
Billie Jo: me too
Paul: um so are you ready for these final like three fast lightning round silly questions? All right drum roll. What song do you hate because it gets stuck in your head when you sing it
Billie Jo: I had one stuck in my head the other day when we were when we were on the road because we went to Hilton Head for thanksgiving
Paul: oh nice
Billie Jo: and I had one that was really stuck in my head
Paul: did you sing it?
Billie Jo: no I was trying to go oh my my boyfriend specifically uh decided to sing um I don’t know if it was all-star that he was singing or
Paul: that’s a little painful especially if it’s on repeat
Billie Jo: yeah I know. I asked him I was like so if you were to go to hell and hell was literally the same song over and over again forever which song would it be and he said that it would be okay no matter what song it was and I was like okay hmm
Paul: really?
Billie Jo: yeah
Paul: huh
Billie Jo: He’s that way
Paul: I don’t know what to do with that Billy Jo. I really don’t
Billie Jo: I don’t either. I wish I could remember what it was so I could tell you but there’s literally one song that always gets stuck in my head but I don’t hate it but it it reappears
Paul: it reappears
Billie Jo: like it’s an 80s song
Paul: you’ll remember it probably when we like me where it’s like oh i’ll remember it later. Second question. Favorite cake flavor combo with frosting
Billie Jo: oh okay that’s actually pretty easy because I generally don’t really like cake so my favorite cake of all time is the I don’t remember if it’s Betty Crocker or Pillsbury but it’s cherry chip cherry chip cake with cream cheese frosting
Paul: cherry chip cake. I don’t know that I’ve ever even heard of it that sounds nice
Billie Jo: it’s it’s like you know super fake flavoring but it’s okay I love it my friend once bought me a bunch of boxes off ebay because she couldn’t find it in stores and she wanted me to have one for my birthday so
Paul: I love it.
Billie Jo: yeah
Paul: third question. What fictional character do your friends say you are most like?
Billie Jo: I don’t know that my friends say that I’m like anybody I don’t know that anybody’s ever said that I
Paul: or who do you think that you what fictional character would you say you are most like?
Billie Jo: I wish I was like Franny Fisher but I I’m not I’m not as good as this Franny Fisher. you know what I’m talking about?
Paul: I think I do I’m really not sure though, tell me more.
Billie Jo: I’m terrible with the names of people and just proper nouns in general so I when when I reach for them they’re gone but the woman who played the mom in Babadook is the actor.
Paul: yeah yes yes yes
Billie Jo: she plays the lead on the Franny Fisher Murder Mysteries and she’s amazing.
Paul: oh wait wait wait yeah no the uh I do know what you’re talking about and she is stellar
Billie Jo: yeah she’s like I love her adventurous spirit her independence her amazing fashion you know it’s like all of the things you know I admire all of that so and
Paul: then you have some of those qualities it’s good
Billie Jo: my fashion has gone way downhill this year it’s just like which t-shirt should I wear today with the same yoga pants as yesterday so
Paul: we can blame it on the pandemic in some ways though because it’s like what are we all I don’t know
Billie Jo: well I did really well for the first month for the first month I was like I’m gonna wear a sundress every day and I you know still did my hair and whatnot and then after that it there just came a point when I went kaput.
Paul: Thanks so much Billy joe I enjoyed that and if anybody wants to find out more information about Billie Joeyou can actually find her online at BillieJoKones.com billie Joe Kones I’m going to spell it for you is b i l l i e billie jokones.com additionally if you want to learn about anything more about me you can log on to my website which is iamPaulCram.com Thanks everyone. let’s keep being kind to each other
